


Tea and Werewolves

by renakane



Series: Cathartic 'Verse [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: EWE, F/F, Femslash, Fluff, Gen, HPSlash, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Muggle London, Post-Hogwarts, Slash, and faffing about, and hermione isn't even in this fic, and pansy has gone soft, characters will be added as the, hermione might end up in these drabbles after all, hpfemslash, i don't really know what tags to use for this, i just can't let pansy parkinson go, its so random, like a gooy marshmallow, never on this journey did i think i would fall in love with a character this much, okay, this all started because i wanted hermione to have a tense sexual relationship with a girl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-03-07 23:52:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18883849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renakane/pseuds/renakane
Summary: So this looks like its going to be a series of drabbles that I randomly post from time to time, while I am working on other things. The timeline starts in 1998 a month or so after the battle of Hogwarts and will probably end up somewhere around the time of the epilogue to Cathartic.Also forgot I made a playlist for this fic series during the summer and well summer is over now, but here it is anyway (edited: 9.18.19)https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7H5CB4EQDwwYHpEc1S9BiJ?si=CGJfR05vRLSlnwU0DMNiHQ





	1. Part I. Thank you, I’m Fine Standing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little baby fic about Pansy in the months that follow the Battle of Hogwarts. I did not even ask myself for this, but there I was about to start writing something else entirely when I threw this up instead.

 

 

 

     Pansy’s mother’s ashes were sitting on the table in the starchy parlour of the funeral home. A hard ornate wooden chair had been offered to her when she first arrived, but she had chosen to stand. The director had insisted she take as long as she needed in the room and to simply give notice when she would like her mother’s ashes sent to the family mausoleum. Her mother doubtlessly died of shame from her father being exposed and tried as a death eater, although the healer had reported it was acute heart failure. Her mother had not even stuck around to see how her father had lasted but a day past her in Azkaban. Pansy had told them she did not care what they did with him and had not heard back from the ministry since. Her brother had not been seen or heard from since the fall of the Dark Lord. Likely he was either dead or had run very far away, either option left him to not to be seen again.

     To no surprise, her family accounts were all still frozen despite her father being dead and neither her mother or her being accused of anything. However, it seemed her mother had put aside an account for her under her own family’s name and set it up so that only Pansy had access to it. It was not much, it probably was what little her mother kept aside in secret over the years for herself. Pansy was unsure of how to feel about her mother's last act of concern. Since she arrived in the room she had been feeling as if her whole body was pulsing to a wicked speed. The realisation that she was trembling left her taken aback

     She found herself back in a memory from childhood, when she had _accidentally_ spilt her tea on Lucius Malfoy after he made a snide allude to her father about what few uses witches had. They had been discussing a marriage contract between her and Draco. Lucius assumedly had second thoughts after the incident, considering the look of disgust he held with her tea across his robes. Once they were home her father had screamed at her for an hour before sending for Song to lock her in her room for the night. Her mother had come in much later and petted her hair while she fell asleep, offering no words of comfort. Her mother's actions only solidified the finality with Pansy that this would always be her place in such a world. Her mother had never shielded her from her father and she had no idea what her mother’s own opinions were on anything beyond what colour robe was best for a formal tea and what style must never be worn to a Yule dinner. Yet, her mother had been almost her sole companion, next to Song, while she was a child. She had only ever been allowed the occasional playdates with children her father deemed to be elite and pure. These held out to be rare and most of the year’s before Hogwarts were spent in the tea room, metaphorically at her mother’s feet.

     Pansy brought her hand to clutch the medusa medallion from the summer she was fourteen and had spent all of July running around Rome with Draco and Blaise before everything had gone to shit. She had found it at the bottom of her school trunk; she had personally emptied after it was sent to her from Hogwarts two weeks post-battle. As she removed each item she was drawn back to sitting in the dungeons with the younger years and anyone who else had decided not to fight the death eaters attacking the castle. In the dungeons, she had sat wondering what sort of decisions she had been making and if she should have made different ones. She had not been able to glimpse Hermione’s expression while she was herded out of the great hall. She imagined, though, that the girl thoroughly hated her, after all, she offered up her best friend to a man who wanted to kill him. She sat in those dungeons and when some of the death eaters tumbled their way down into the assemblage of children, she pulled out her wand and made a different decision.

     Now she stood staring at the remnants of her dead mother and tried to consider what decisions she would make now that no one was left to make them for her. She did not pause as she walked out of the parlour without a second glance. She had been raised to understand that decisions made were final and that one did not go back on them.

 

* * *

 

     The London house had been seized by the ministry for an indeterminable amount of time, but the seaside manor had been left alone after a single raid. It likely had nothing of worth or interest to the ministry due to the family spending but a week or so there a year if that. She apparated to the grounds directly from outside the funeral parlour, not wishing to linger in the wizarding part of London. The manor gave her mixed feelings as all things did these days. It now housed only her and Song, the other house elves she had released giving them the options of going to Hogwarts or to anywhere else they might like. They had all immediately bound themselves to the wrecked castle, which still required extensive repairs and cleanup a month later. She drifted through the manor like a spectre and took to standing for long periods of time out the window only to be pulled out of her trances by Song, who would urge her to eat or drink something. After several weeks of this, she had thrown off her silk dressing gown, packed up a trunk of her more practical clothing, and told Song to put sheets across the furniture. She went through methodically locking and warding the windows and doors. Once the house had been close, in a single swift motion she shrunk her trunk and took Song’s hand apparating to London. She quickly found herself to the outside of a muggle leasing office with the converted galleons from her mother’s account in a bag. The lady at the office remained impassive to Pansy having no knowledge renting and did not seem to notice Song at all. Pansy who did not even think how a house elf would be strange to a muggle, was grateful that Song likely had cast a glamour over herself. The Muggle woman must have affected that Pansy was simply a rich young woman who had never done anything for herself before and took her through the steps of renting or buying housing in London. Pansy had pressed that she needed a place today and the woman had not blinked and listed off several locations while showing Pansy the photographs the agency had on hand. Pansy had liked the look of a flat in Soho, Westminster and the woman offered to take her for a viewing, but Pansy simple bought the place then and there before exiting with the paperwork and keys.

     She had never been anywhere near where the flat was located and remembered that muggles had taxis that took them places, sort of like the knight bus. She found herself in one of the shiny black muggle automobiles and hoped the muggle money she had left from the flat was enough. Once dropped off, she had discovered that finding the exact building number and the way up to the flat was more difficult than imagined. There was a small alley between buildings that led to a dusty corner with a set of stairs that lead into another building which was how one accessed the building that housed her own complexes dense stairwell. She walked up several flights until she found herself on the level that was listed for her flat and discovered that Flat 31 was just off to the left of the stairs. The flat was, of course, empty and the broad street-facing windows that had attracted her to it in the first place were in plain view from the door. She walked across the wooden floors that echoed with each step. The leasing agent explained how the flat had been renovated for a more open design while still keeping the privacy of a bedroom behind a half wall. Pansy couldn't have cared less that the open design just meant a small space with no walls. Still, the echoes of the flat gave her a peculiar settled feeling.

 

     “Song, I think you should go help at Hogwarts too.”

     “Miss I won't!”

     “I have grown Song, long past needing a nursemaid and the flat is hardly big enough to need help cleaning.”

     “It doesn’t matter, I shall not be leaving the little miss!”

     Pansy looked down at the small figure whose hands sat resolutely on her hips and her face set in unwavering firmness.

     “I think I need this Song and while I am grateful how much you care for me. I will never be any different if I live my life being cared for by others. Its time for me to take care of myself.” Song’s face crumpled into distress but solemnly nodded before disappearing with a crack.

     Pansy let go of the breath she had been holding and sank to the floor in front of the windows. She leaned her forehead against the cold glass and cried for the first time in a year.

 

* * *

 

     By Pansy’s estimate, she barely had enough money left to last her 6 months, outright purchasing the flat used up pretty much all her funds. She did not linger on regretting it, despite it still not having any furniture. She had transfigured a pillow into a sleeping mat, but the rest had been left sparse. Pansy liked the empty feeling of it and decided that if she wanted to fill it she could do so after acquiring an income. Pansy was not an idiot, while never having had one she realised that a job was the only way to get money and that she would have to find one. Yet, she still found herself dazed and confused when she left the flat into muggle London. She sat on park benches and stood against brick buildings watching the world arrange and muddle itself around her. She found the newspapers and magazines were not so different by comparison to the magical ones, however, they covered topics that she had never heard and even the fashion magazines with their completely still models were strange to her. Even if she set aside her lack of comprehension of the modern muggle, she would still have no skills in the muggle world. She certainly would have no real luck finding a job in the magical world: so soon after the war, so soon after everyone knew whose side her family had been, and so soon after the 6 or so years she spent bullying everyone within her sightline at Hogwarts.

     At the end of the week she picked up a newspaper at the newsstand near her flat, she had discovered recently that they contained job adverts. She walked away with a newspaper tucked under her arms, pressing her fingers to her pounding head. She would need caffeine if she was to sort through all of the adverts and then find a payphone to make calls from.  She had been eyeing a coffee shop around the corner for a while now but had been trying to restrain herself from spending the money the extra money. The box of Tetley tea had been haunting her lately, she shuddered at its murky flavour and had wished she had not gone for the cheapest tea in Tesco.

     She walked up to the cafe peeking through the large glass windows into the cosey inside, it was a mix of tables with mismatched chairs and a couple of sofas. There was a seat near the window open and Pansy pushed through the simple hinged door inside. The cafe smelled like warm butter and vanilla with a jolt of the earthy smell of coffee.  The menu was simple and the lattes were probably the fanciest drink they offered. Still upset over her tea decisions she decided that the warm milk might do her good. She went to the till to order and was surprised to be face to face with Lavender Brown. The girl looked quite different from her school days, even though technically Pansy would have seen her less than a year ago, at least before she disappeared in the walls of Hogwarts. She currently wore her hair parted down the middle plaited in two french braids, this left her face full and open. It was a decision that Pansy thought most would hesitate on. As the girl had several fine red puffy scars across her amber face measuring from cheekbones to across her nose, yet Lavender had never not been bold.

 

     “Well, what a shock, the queen of snakes in the flesh, in muggle London no less.” Lavender had jutted her chin out as if squaring up to a bull charging through the shop.

     “Surely, you could think of something better than the queen of snakes.” Pansy found herself speaking with a certain level of snark that she didn’t know she still had. After having not really spoken to anyone in the past couple months, especially those she knew, she had thought herself permanently stuck in distantly polite pureblood mode. She now wished, though, that the words had come out softer. It was probably not the best choice for a first encounter after all that had occurred. And if Pansy felt regret, it might have been in this moment.

     “Hm, perhaps.” She stared Pansy down, presuming that the girl would choose to vacate the premises rather than stay within her presence. Pansy found, though, that she had not been bold enough in her life thus far and that the few times she chose to be, wonderful things always followed.

     “May I order a latte? I think I have finally sorted Pound sterlings out, especially the coins. Granted the paper is lighter to carry, but I won’t actually admit that” Lavender did not acknowledge the joke but tilted her head.

     “Mmk, we only have one size. You want it to go?”

     “I was hoping to sit in.” She held up her muggle newspaper. “I have a paper to go through and it's a bit cooler inside is all.”

     “Alrighty, it’ll two pounds fifty.” Lavender accepted the coins from Pansy with little fuss and turned around to make her drink. Pansy a little unsure if that meant the end of their interaction, chose to sidle over to the small round table by the window. She fussed over the paper while she waited for the drink, not really knowing what she should be looking for in the _Classifieds_ as it was listed at the top of the page. After a few minutes Lavender slid her latte onto the table and walked off back behind the counter without another look. Pansy expected nothing less to be quite honest and Lavenders treatment was actually better than what she might expect in more magical parts. Not that she had actually gone to any such parts. It is conceivable that she is putting far too much on the worth of her name and people knowing it. She certainly was not about to risk it and find out what she long suspected.

     

     Despite the continuous chilly reception, that she found oddly comforting and refused to analysis why it was comforting, she returned several times to the shop on perhaps the fifth time, Lavender slid the latte in front of her and sat in the opposite chair.

     

     “What gives Parkinson, why do you keep coming back here and always faffing about with the paper as if you can’t read.” Pansy flicked the paper a little higher, hoping to hide what she sensed in the heat rising to her face.

     “Well, it is without a doubt the _awesome_ company that I get to keep in this establishment.”

     “Yeh, I am sure that’s it”

     “Really, though, you don’t have to call me out on not being able to read the paper.”

     “Whatsit? Pansy we attending seven years of school together, while I am sure there are people that thought you dense enough. I know you can read.”

     “Heh, yes I can read, but I cannot comprehend this bloody paper for the life of me. All these jobs that are listed are things that I don’t have a bloody clue about, from the titles used to the skills they ask for.”

     “Your… job searching?” Lavender appeared truly startled by this. .

     “I mean… yes? I only have so much of the funny muggle money left, before I have to resort back to the tea in my flat.” She had tried to make a joke about it, but Lavender’s stricken face told her she failed.

     “I just, doesn’t your family have money?”

 

     “Sure, but daddy dearest did his best to… vex, let's say, the ministry before he rotted and mummy cannot very well rally when she is ashes. I cannot say though that I very much want to have my father’s money anyway. He has certainly left me enough things aside from money to inherit.”

     “Oh, well a lot of apprenticeships are making leniencies for not have NEWTS, or they are offering a write-in program to get your NEWTS.”

     “I don’t think it's my lack of NEWTS that will stop anyone from taking me on,” she said wryly.

     “Mm yeah.” Lavender sat quietly with Pansy for a few moments, before saying anything more. “Let me see the paper, I am sure there is something even a spoiled princess like you can do.”

     “Thanks...” Pansy hesitated just before Lavender appropriated the paper herself along with the ballpoint pen that Pansy had snagged from one of the newsstands and began to circle a few of the adverts.

     “There are a few retail positions here and while retail is hell, you can start it without really have skills or knowing what you're doing if the girls at Harrods are any example.” She handed the paper back to Pansy where she had circled jobs that were at department stores. “Look you can use the phone here at the shop if you want, just spin them a story about you and a sister being orphaned and a terrible uncle taking the family fortune, maybe make your sister sick or something.” Pansy mocked a gasp,

     “You want me to lie, really Lav darling, I could never.”

     “Ha, okay well when you want to use the phone just come up to the till.” and with that, she went back behind the counter.

 

     It is such the turn of events that lead Pansy to be employed in the back room of the ladies department at the very place Lavender alluded to clueless girls, Harrods. It did not take her long to pick up on muggle fashion once in the fray of it and they soon switched her to the floor. The department head told her she had just the face for it too, which Pansy suspected meant she looked like the right mix of a bitch and a girl who knew what she was doing.  It was strange, she had always liked clothes and the more experimental sides of robes, but the magical world was severely lacking in the depth and the extent that muggles went into fashion. Soon her closest was filled with assortments of Muggle dress rather than the awkwardly transfigured robes she had been wearing. Sometimes she could acquire items from the back room that had been set aside due to manufacturing errors, the mistakes made by the muggle machines were easily altered with magic. It had taken her some time to brush up on her mending charms, the clothes seemed no worse for it. She had even haggled with another girl over a floral sundress by covering a rather unpleasant shift for her. The dress was gifted clumsily to Lavender with mumbled words about owing her for the help with getting the job in the first place.

     Around late September was the first time she ran into Parvati at Coffee & Co., Parvati had addressed her with the same initial suspicions that Lavender had held on their first few meetings, but soon she was at the shop just as frequently as Pansy. It turns out she had spent the past couple months visiting the branch of Patils in Maharashtra with her sister and mother. Lavender had been keeping in fast contact during those months and she was soon moving in with Lav at the terrace house off Camden Road that Lavender had been living in already for a couple of months. How they managed to be in an all muggle household alluded Pansy. They came from Pureblood families that certainly were muggle sympathizes, but were still starkly wizarding families. Pansy was not sure if she had the right to press at the point. She almost had when Lavender had acted stunned to see Pansy job searching in the muggle world, while she, in fact, worked at a muggle establishment. It surely had to do with the scarring across her freckled cheeks and the implication of it. She did not think they were close enough for such sharing, especially, at that first moment. And Pansy did not want to go back to the days where her coffee was stiffly set down, rather than the barista sliding it over while she sat down to chat for a bit. Thus as Lavender nor Parvati ever addressed it, neither did Pansy push at the issue just yet.

 

* * *

 

     October in London marked almost three months that Pansy had spent on her own in the small Soho flat. She had still not furnished it to an extent that would be approved by her late mother. The bedroom space was taken up largely by a mattress without a frame and a rack that she charmed to the wall to hold her clothes, while the floor was covered haphazardly with muggle magazines and books. The sitting room that broke off from the sparse kitchen had a few large floor pillows near the window that she had found at the flea market and more books were settled around them, her current mending project, and her wand absentmindedly sat out on the pillow. She had wanted to keep space minimal with decoration, but had found the few objects she had just ended up taking over the cleared space. She filled most of her time outside of work at the coffee shop reading muggle literature. She had at first taken recommendations from the Oxfam shop attendant, but after working through those she had steadily just drawn a few books from each section. She wanted to absorb the most of all of the options, albeit she quickly took to having strick opinions on certain genres. Such that poetry was brilliant until the writer got too full of themselves, fantasy or science fiction was both thrilling and hilarious whilst never hitting too close to home like she first suspected they might, and romance was tosh-- but she still read it thoroughly, often with wine.

     It was the last week in October when Parvati dropped down next to Pansy on the shop's yellow sofa.

     “ ‘Lo Pans.”

“Hello Pavarti,” she spoke airily. They had all three quickly adopted speaking to each other by first names within the first month. Pansy darkly thought it might be because her own last name brought about the reminder of who she was. It could also very well be that this was something friends did, however, she was still unsure if that's how they viewed her. After all, could three months of talking about books and tea really erase anything from their pasts, or enough of it so that they considered associating with her. She shook her head trying to get out of her own train of thought and put a bookmark in the page she had stopped reading at, so that she could turn to face Parvati on the sofa.

     “So as you know British muggles don’t really celebrate Halloween except for the younger ones going out and getting tossed-” Parvati had a large smile on her face at this point -“some though celebrate it with a house party with fancy dress.”

     “Fancy dress? Like costumes… why?” Pansy furrowed her eyebrows, she knew that Halloween was seen differently in the muggle world.

     “Yes exactly! Like Lav is going to be a cat because she refuses to do a couple's costume with me and I am dressing as a Mummy.” Parvati smirked, it seems her greatest fear was no longer wrapped in linen and she had taken to making a joke out of it instead.  

     “Oh, well.” Pansy in no way understood what this muggle tradition was about, but she found when you didn’t know in the muggle world it was best to pretend like it made sense.

     “Haha, yeah and we were wondering if you wanted to come to ours? Really it's our housemates that are throwing it, but we can invite anyone we want.”

     “You want me to come to your house?” She knew where their house was through conversation, yet had never actually been to it. This was not anything she took to heart, of course, she had not ventured to invite them to her flat either.

     “Yeah, well for a party. You can come early, though, if you want to get ready for it together.” Pansy was still surprised enough that she did not answer right away and instead had sat on the sofa with a scrunched face. Parvati had poked the wrinkles in her forehead when she did not respond after a while.

     “Don’t overthink it, another witch and a warlock live there and the muggles we live with are all pretty strange.  They consist of a hippie and two punks so you won’t stand out if you slip up or are clueless to something muggle.” Parvati smiled at Pansy while she rubbed the back of her neck with her palm.

     “I had no idea you lived with other wizards. I thought there were only muggles in the house.”

 

     “Yeh, they were both homeschooled, its common enough in Ireland where the Irish warlock is from, obvi. The witch though is from London. Her parents were worried she would have trouble because she is deaf, so they kept her home. She is a little bitter about it actually, but it's not like Hogwarts went out of the way to encourage her parents to enrol her either. She is quite ace with charms.”

     “Are they working in the muggle world too?”

     “They are, Darren works in retail too and I am sure you guys can lament together. Nailah works at a bookshop in Charing Cross. Their reasonings are their own like all of us.” Parvati spoke the last statement with a shrug.

     “Ah, it could be interesting to meet wizards who were homeschooled and I am sure your muggle housemates are nice too.”

     “Yes! Does that mean you will come?”

     “I guess…”

     “Brilliant! What are you gonna dress up as?” Pansy did not even have the appropriate words to express how much she was ill prepared for a muggle fancy dress party. Parvati seemed to find Pansy’s widening eyes and sick expression, so hilarious that she nearly fell off the sofa with laughter, rather than offering any real advice to Pansy’s predicament.

     

* * *

 

 

     October 31st had long held a day of classes followed by a feast on the golden plates of the great hall. Last years feast had been a mockery of the years previous, there had been no buzzing excitement, no half planned pranks that still were funny, and the jack-o-lanterns had refused to float about the enchanted ceiling. The ghastly ghoul's choir had not shown, making the silence in the great hall all the more defining. Pansy hoped that despite still repairing itself Hogwarts would be reclaiming the joy of today's feast and that the excitement might take the edge off of all those missing from its four tables. Pansy had gone into work not worried about timing, the party at the Camden house did not start till 8 pm and Pansy had brought her change of clothes with her to go directly to the house after work at 6 pm to get ready with Parvati and Lavender. She spent most of the afternoon sorting through the last of Harrod’s Christmas set up, which would be put out tonight in time for the first of November. It was interesting how early they were preparing for it, but she had seen other shops that had their Christmas stock out already, so she supposed Harrods was rather late in terms of retail hell time. They would pick up a new holiday staff from November thru January. She had spent the past couple weeks training a few new shop attendants for her floor, but the manager had implied that even with extra employees the store would still be incredibly overwhelmed and to take a deep breath now before it all started.

 

     Pansy hopped on to the back of the bus and pulled herself up to the top seats in the back. The first time she had taken the bus had been surprisingly underwhelming. She suspected she had built it up too long out of anxiety, after all, she had flat out refused to even look at the bus numbers and had refused to travel only by the tube and even that she did begrudgingly. Yet as soon as she got over herself she found the bus was the cheaper option and just as valid as the tube. She would still sometimes take the underground in the mornings when she was late or in a rush, but otherwise, she had comfortably retired to London's iconic red buses which funny enough the knight bus had been modelled after. Wizards certainly liked to think they were clever, but the exchange of ideas from muggle to wizard and wizard to muggle had been going on millennia.

     Her co-worker remarked that a lot of people went to fancy dress as characters from films or books. She had been reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and was not sure if the doctor or the monster would be well recognized after all the copy had been small and dusty in the back of the bookstore. Her co-worker also listed that sometimes people dressed as the broader idea of things, like cats (i.e. Lav) and scary creatures. She had not really known what creatures would be known to muggles and was sure they were probably exaggerated versions of the magical creatures she knew, however, it was not till she had come across a display in a shop that had a witch riding a broomstick that she had an idea. It was not surprising that brooms were heavily associated with magic, they were tough to disillusion due to the heavy amount of spellwork already on them and so muggles probably caught sight of them more often. She was distraught to note that the stereotypes around witches was that they were ugly, old, and stole children. While wizards got away with being silly and eccentric individuals that often were seeking advice from. It was completely ridiculous that as usual witches got the short end of the stick. She hoped whatever man prompted that view of witches choked.

 

     Pansy lost in thought quickly found herself standing at her destination. The terrace was like every other on the block with nothing but the number out front to distinguish it from the other Victorian counterparts. She got over her nervousness and went to knock at the door. It was near immediately opened by a boy with short cropped curly brown hair he spoke and Pansy thought it a fair shot that he was the Irish housemate.

     “How’s it going, you must be Pansy - the girls mentioned, oh about twenty times you were coming early and as I am the lucky fellow currently mugged with setting up the downstairs I am to open the door before you even dare to knock. I apologize that you did have to knock, but I would like to point out it was a short solemn knock and one could hardly count it. So perhaps we shall not even mention it to the girls hmmm?” he smiled a bit ruefully as if realising from her startled expression that he, in fact, had quite a forceful presence, as if he often forgot and was often told to reign in his exuberant personality.

 

     “Well as I am not sure I followed any of that I can say with certainty that I won’t mention what I don’t know, to the vague moniker that is _the girls_.” She smiled back hoping it came off as cheerful rather than snarky.

     “Ah, my plot has been seen through, but luckily not foiled! Onwards me fair maidy to the lair of _the girls_.” He ushered her through the door before shutting it behind them, after a quick twist up of the handle and several locks he lead her up the stairs to the first room on the left. He did not bother to knock and announced his presence with a loud “TALLY HO” and a kick of the door which was met by a chorus of offended shouts. A girl with an uncountable amount of ear piercings and sharp spiky black hair was the only one to voice actual words.

     “Oi, what if we had been in our knickers Faolain!”

     “I would assume that you are all having a grand time then and join you!” Derran spoke while simultaneously moving his hands in a fashion that Pansy was unfamiliar with.

     “Ugh, you are horrid.” Parvati came over and tugged Pansy more thoroughly in the room. “I cannot believe we left Pansy in your presence for even a minute.”

     “You are too late! I have already both traumatized and impressed upon her the importance of anarchy and Satan. Mwahaha!”

     Parvati was starting to wrap Pansy in her arms towards her chest as she gasped. “You leave her alone you dreadful boy!” Pansy was pretty sure they were being dramatic and as such decided such insanity only had one counter. She pulled back from Parvati with her hands on the girl's shoulder.

     “Its too late Par I have been taken in and I shan’t drag you down with me.” She shook her head collapsing backwards. Darren neatly caught her under the armpits and started to slowly drag her backwards.

 

     “Ah well, that is that ladies we shall just be going then.” Pansy peeked out from under her eyelashes to see Parvati shaking her head, the spikey girl falling laughing towards the bed, and lavender biting her lip while making the same hand motions that Darren had made to the girl with dark curly tresses.

     “Alright, alright everyone get it together because none of us have finished getting ready and it's already almost 7 and I am sure the downstairs is not ready either.” Parvati cast a narrowed eyed side-long look at Darren, who just smiled cheekily in return while helping Pansy steady on her feet again. He saluted Parvati as he left, trailing the words “Yes Parvati, Ma'am, Parvati!” behind him.

     She picked up her bag where it had dropped on the floor and looked toward the group of girls once more.

     “Okay, so you obviously know Lav, me, and you just met Darren. This shiny beauty here is Ellie,” Parvati said pointing to the girl with spikes a shimmering silver makeup. “And the one who looks like she just walked out of a magazine is Nailah.” Parvati motioned towards the remaining girl.

     “Uhh it's nice to meet you, I’m Pansy.” She weakly lifted her hand and waved it a bit.

     “Lovely, what outfit did you bring to mix and better not be another cat because both Lav and Nailah have decided to copy each other in unoriginality.

     “Oi! I will have you know I came up with being a cat first, thank you very much.” Lavender indignantly glared towards Parvati.

     “Is it rude to ask, but what are you doing with your hands?”

     “Sorry Pans, I forgot, its British Sign Language. You remember how I told you Nailah was deaf, well while possibly a poor way of putting it, sign language is how she speaks and we speak to her. Although she does read lips, so if you face towards her just whenever you are talking to her or we are in a group it helps.”

     “Oh Okay.” Pansy unsure if she was supposed to say something else, decided to pull her costume out as a way of avoiding awkwardly interrupting the conversation again. She had come up with the idea while looking at the window displays and it was fully formed once she got to the fancy dress shop and saw the hat and dress on the clothing rack. The pointy had was of cheap material and it easily was shoved into her backpack with the jaggily cut black dress that fell to her ankles.

     “Pansy!” Lavender exclaimed loudly when she saw what Pansy had pulled out. Parvati was trying not to giggle and Nailah had a light in her eyes while smiling broadly.

     “A witch, that's still pretty basic mate. I suppose it's probably going to be better than what some of the other louts come as though.” Ellie squinted towards Pansy as she was still applying more paint to her face. “I am going as our very own Starman for anyone who couldn’t possibly guess.” She pointed at the painted lighting and shimmer across her entire face.

     “I don’t know if I know what that means, but your makeup looks wicked.” Pansy tried for her second smile of the day.

 

* * *

 

     Pansy had found a way to a flat part of the roof outside of Lav and Parvati’s window. The moon was a waxing gibbous that would reach its full size over the next few days, but even then it would be difficult to catch a glimpse of it above the smoggy London streets. The stars were never as beautiful as they were in the far north of Britain, the city contained too many buildings with too many lights to outshine them. Pansy wasn’t sure when she had traded stars for the cobblestone, but she felt the same quiet peace while staring out her windows at neon lights that she had once felt staring at the stars through treetops. There was something about sitting perfectly still while everything else bustled noisily and quickly around you, even when the sun had long set the movement would not cease. She heard a group of men exuberant in the distance, drunk off either the night or beer. One was soon clamouring up the street at top speed and the friends were shortly bellowing after him tripping over each other and the pavement. The window shutter made a clattering noise at Lavender shoving her way through it.

     “Is this Pansy Parkinson I see out here on my roof sitting like a delinquent, running away from a party of muggles?” Pansy could see the streetlights hitting her misty brown eyes and her smile ringing with subdued glee.

     “I know its hard for us to see our idols as real people darling, but even a star must have her moments of rest.”

     “Ha!” Lavender let out a short bark of laughter while settling herself next Pansy with crisscrossed legs. “I never thought I would be slumming it in muggle London with Pansy Parkinson. How weird because we have known each other for half our lives. I was such a crybaby in school so it's not surprising I was only really friends with Parvati.”

     “To be fair I was probably the one making you cry… and everyone else. I cannot imagine that is the reason I had no friends in school.” Pansy snorted at her own joke before leaning into Lavender's warmth, the October night was chilly is all.

     “Well, we can be friendless friends together now at least.” Lavender giggled.

     “I, --somehow Parvati and all those kids down there might object to you saying you are friendless now.” Pansy’s eyebrow quirked towards the girl dressed as a cat and her smile spoke with mischief and pleasure.

     “Maybe, but they would be displeased with you just as much now. Ellie says she likes your “sardonic sense of humour” as she puts it and Nailah likes that you aren’t a fast talker and try to always face her in conversation.”

     “They are all different than I expected. I got Derran to show me some sign language and I am pretty sure both he and Nailah were laughing a bit at my piss poor attempts, but it was in a nice way. In a way that Nailah appreciated that I was trying? Even though I was just thinking, trying, not be rude.”

     “I am sure that Nailah did appreciate it. Derran and I are the only ones in the house that can sign fluently. Parvati is slowly picking it up too and Ellie tries but is always switching signs around. I think Lachlan is a bit too dense to think he should be trying and Jamie bless him a bit too high all the time. I am sure you will pick it up quickly enough.” Pansy hummed in thought as Lavender trailed off the conversation. She can’t say she ever imagined herself in this exact situation either, much less with Lavender Brown next to her for it. What caught her off guard the most, though, was how much she liked all of them and how much all of them evidently liked her. The past few months of walking into Coffee & Co was the most welcome she had felt and coming here today was tenfold that feeling. She certainly did not deserve this, but she would be damned if she did not hold on to it as tight as possible.

     “Hey Ellie, knows about magic and wizards doesn’t she?” It had occurred to her as a possibility based on the easy reaction she had to Pansy’s costume choice and when she had seen her again earlier when she was holding a conversation with Parvati. She had not been sure if it was the girl's natural ease or if maybe she was more in on the jokes than Pansy had thought.

     “Huh, what makes you say that,” Lavender answered putting a confused voice.

     “Come on now, it's not like I am going to run to the ministry screaming about the statute.” Lavender rolled her eyes.

     “I guess not, she does know about magic, but we weren’t the ones to tell her about it. I met them both by chance and found out they were looking for housemates to move to Camden with. I had met Nailah and Derran a couple of years back and got them to join in. Then Lachlan pulled Jamie into the mix, he is pretty much the only one completely clueless, like I said a bit too high all the time. We have been here for five months or so now and no one has had any issues yet.”

     “Oh, well I am glad it worked out so well. I didn’t even think about finding roommates when I moved here. Not that I was thinking much, to begin with, or even would know how to go about that. I mean I needed your help to figure out the job adverts in the newspaper and how to work the telephone.” Pansy laughed lowly-- shaking her head.

     “Yeah, I cannot really see you in this chaos miss priss.”

     “Oh- ho, you say that but you have not seen the chaos that is my flat. It would be me that would be forced out after a month, not the other way around.”

     “I would like to see that, your chaotic flat that is, not you kicked out on the street.”

     “I had been working up the courage to ask you guys over, but Parvati beat me to it.” She tilted her head pausing before her next words. “I know its probably a broken record at this point, but I do not know what I would have done without you two coming into my life. I was so lost a few months ago, but even if I am still figuring it out… I am not figuring it out alone. There has only been one other time in my life where I felt this… content? I do not think the things I have done can be forgiven or even know if I should take steps to try to make myself better for them. I guess I am just grateful that I am not completely irremissible.” Lavender reached for Pansy’s hand and squeezed it tightly.

     “You made mistakes, you were just a scared kid though, and I think you are braver now even if all you are doing is living each day. We won’t be forgiven for all the mistakes we make in our lives, but even if others define us by them, we don’t have to define ourselves by them.”  They sat comfortably by each other watching the flickering of the city lights. Lavender squeezed Pansy’s hand once more.

     “You know I was coming out here to have a completely different conversation with you.” Lavender laughed quietly to herself. “I hope you don’t take it as a complete segue of what we just talked, but as placement of trust. I also just do not like having someone I am close to not knowing,” she spoke a little shakily. Pansy did not want to interrupt her, so she just looked up and twined their hands tighter.

     “I don’t really know how to just outright tell someone. You may know this already, but at the battle of Hogwarts Greyback was there and I don’t actually remember it all after he managed to disarm me. I think he had me pinned down… and then was blasted off with a curse by someone. I woke up in the great hall that had been turned to a sick bay by then with Parvati crying over me. We didn’t know I was infected till the next full moon. I spent it with Madame Pompfry. My parents were inconsolable and did not want me at home… I ran into Jamie at a London group Madame Pompfry connected me with and we started pulling people together for a house and well here we are.” She pulled a bit away from Pansy, just before Pansy pulled her tightly back into a careful hug. 

     “Lav I am so sorry.” She mumbled into the girl's shoulder as she felt thick drops of water slid on her own shoulder. There was nothing to be said that could fix the cause of the tears, all that she could do was hold the other girl tightly and impress: how important she was, how cared for, how much everyone loved her no matter what. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are my rambling thoughts that I notated while writing this
> 
> *** Fuck canon, fuck realistic wars--Lav and Parvati are living their best lives currently because I say so. Also not that it needs defending, but when canon is a go it's by the book and Lav is not one of the confirmed dead!  
> +++ Pansy takes the Piccadilly line to Harrods?  
> ^^^Lav and Parvarti live in a 6 bedroom terrace house and if you have never had the pleasure of 6 or 7 roommates count yourself both extremely lucky and perhaps lacking for the experience of it. (Camden)  
> \--- I apparently don’t say that they are a couple for like half of this blurb and I didn’t even realise it until I was writing the party scene and was like ‘oh’ maybe I should make it obvious and outside of my own head that these two are banging.  
> >>> I actually have been vaguing about with a Lav/Par fic for a minute now, possibly was writing some of it when I was supposed to be finishing Cathartic. Anyway its theoretically gonna be really long and I suspect will take me quiet a while, particularly if I keep shooting off to write more about Pansy. I just wanted it to be out in the universe, in case it was anything anyone was interested in.  
> <<< You guys know I do not do accents well, so just imagine our boy Darren with a very strong Irish broud (I know there is a word for this but i cannot think i am spelling it right and i cannot be bothered to google it).  
> """"" I have no idea if that conversation about bsl went okay. I feel like a lot of times people react awkwardly to meeting someone who is deaf or hard of hearing? I was also unsure of what being deaf would be like in the wizarding community. I definitely don't like the concept of anything being just magical fixed by magic, but I feel like based on wizards typical obsessions they might just rudely pretend such things aren't an occurrence. So Pansy would probably have zero background knowledge, yeah?
> 
> I thought about taking up a sweet offer for beta for my fics, but am too much of scaredy cat to not just share my work super anonymously, maybe someday.


	2. Just Tea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pansy gets an unexpected visitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sort of have been playing with my narrative style, idk how its going to go but here it is.

Pansy awoke one November morning to a peculiar feeling, the air had a crispness that wasn’t in it during the unusually warm October. She rolled off her bed in no particular hurry. She was not working today and planned to spend the day bothering Lavender and reading a gothic romance she had found for fifty pence, which meant that it would be delightful to read out loud while Lavender tried to kick her out of the shop. Her kitchen was small but Pansy tried to make use for it. She popped the bread into the spiteful toaster that if not watched was keen to burn its charges. She leaned against the counter as she waited, trying to sort through a lingering feeling she got on days like this, for all she was content she mostly felt like she was in a constant state of tripping and catching herself. It was in moments where she hesitated at a doorway, when she got lost in her thoughts on the train missing her stop, or stared too long out a window on a sunny day. The weight of it all would suddenly come at once- her heart would tighten in her chest and it felt as if she had no lungs to breathe with. However, as things sometimes happen a sudden charge will change the air current and offer a chance of insurgency. This chance was in fact a knock at her door. She wondered for a second if it could be her neighbours. Someone from the Camden house would have said if they had planned on visiting or sent an owl with a note. 

When she opened her door she was overcome bewilderment at the pale scrawny blonde boy in her doorway, that she thought she would never see again. 

“Draco, merlin, what are you doing here?

“Nice to see you too Pans, you daft bird, you don’t have a single ward up on you flat. Do you know how basic of a locator spell I used to find you.” She blinked at the abruptness of the individual in front of her and took a moment to study him. This was certainly the boy she had spend her childhood with, although not unexpectedly, he had grown. The last time she had seen him was a brief glance at the Battle of Hogwarts and the last conversation was nearly a full year prior to the battle in May of 6th year. It had been a caustic conversation and the next thing she knew he was fleeing from the school while Dumbledore fell from the astronomy tower and then he had been staying? confined? imprisoned? at the Malfoy manor for their true seventh year. Harry Potter had spoken at Narcissa and his trials over the summer, what he had said to hasten their innocence she was not sure, nevertheless here was the proof that Draco hadn’t been secretly sent to rot in Azkaban. His mother and he had likely dropped from society, not that Pansy kept up with wizarding society but it's essentially what she did. And here was Draco standing in front of her like he wasn’t wearing black muggle pants and a green harington. His sharp angles only sharper now with no trace of childhood to soften them. His face slightly pinched while looking at her as she had a gorgons head, as if she was the one being strange and showing up at peoples houses unannounced. 

“Well, would like to come in Draco?”

“Yes, well I certainly didn’t stop by to knock on your door and run away. Do you know that muggle children do that, as a game, or as a prank I suppose.” Draco was talking inanely and Pansy wasn’t sure even someone pretending to be Draco could have missed the mark from usual condescending drawl. She knew, though, what others often didn’t that Draco was really just a silly little boy who had been shown from a young age it was better to face the world with a sneer rather than a smile. There was something strangely relaxing and off-putting about Draco conversing as if it were really just another Tuesday and that they did not have their entire history behind them. She pulled the small table near the window and left Draco to figure out he was supposed to sit on the floor cushions.

“Tea?” She asked already walking to the kitchen.

“Yes, that would be lovely.” Pansy was not sure it would be, all she had was the Tetley tea and she took a small moment to smirk at how Draco might react to the tea. 

Pansy put the kettle on the hob to boil as she couldn’t quite remember where she had thrown her wand. The toaster had indeed burned the bread and Pansy tossed it onto a plate in disgust to give to the birds later. She quickly threw two teabags into cups when the kettle started screeching. Not caring if they had steeped long enough to be served she brought the tea over to the table and unceremoniously sat on the opposite pillow from Draco.   
Draco went from wary at first sip of the tea, to giving the tea a look, that would have been more at place on someone scolding a child or a particularly naughty pet. 

“Ah, thank you for tea.” he managed to choke out after another sip. Pansy’s lips twitched as she proceeded to leave her tea completely untouched. 

“You’re welcome.” She let him take another sip of tea before continuing. “Now Draco, as lovely as it is to sit here and have tea like we are just old chums who haven’t seen each other in a while, I do wonder what has brought you here… to my flat… on Tuesday, the tenth of November, at approximately nine forty-five in the morning.” she quirked an eyebrow as she tilted her head towards Draco.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what this is. I thought it might be something more, but I stopped feeling it after a minute. Ima post it anyway. I do think I am going to go further with the re-establishment of Draco and Pany's relationship in the drabbles, but may not make it super detailed. We shall find out together


End file.
